That was the single most conservative game of football I have ever seen in my life, and I've watched old YouTubve videos of midwestern schools going up against each other in 1970. If Kirk Ferentz has the ability to be employed as a football head coach in America, it explains the USA's economic decline.

Iowa clearly needs a lesson in cutthroat captialism. Too much money to have fossils driving at the wheel

He's def part of the equation. Why the hell would anyone ever hire him? To drink with him? Their offense has regressed BADLY. Insanely. Throwing 5 yard outs after 30 secs roll off the clock...with 2 minutes left in the game? WTF

By the numbers, this is where the deficit over last year is apparent. The final line for Iowa last year in the passing game was 240/412 for 3,052 yards, good for 7.41 yard per attempt and 14.4 yards per completion. Their final line for this year will be 222/389 for 1,460 yards, or 3.75 yards per attempt and 6.57 yards per completion. That's...significant, and that's two OCs at work. Vandenberg is a serviceable pocket passer, so there's a lot of coaching in this, I suspect.

I will also add here that they fell off in rushing totals over last year, but not quite to the above scale.

Last year's coordinator had the best WR in the league to work with. This year's coordinator has...well, I'll be kind and just say that he doesn't. And the only RB standing was happy, at the beginning of the season, to have beaten out five others to be the co-second-string fullback.

That doesn't explain the play calling and tempo at the end of the game. I don't really think he took a dive but the only other expalnation is that he is an idiot but that is not the case - puntasaurus yes - idiot no. Really hard to understand.

that "terrible coaching" and "terrible players" are independent things. They are not. Iowa is terrible partially because their coaching has been terrible. Ferentz is a puntosaur, and Greg fricking Davis is one of the most incompetent OCs I have ever seen. I think they attempted one throw of greater than 10 yards in teh 4th quarter. When they were losing by a touchdown and had the wind at their backs. Meanwhile, on a 3rd and 4 he decided on an utterly obvious run that went for 1 yard...and from there Ferentz took over by punting on a 4th and 3 from midfield with just 7 minutes left. I mean...come on, man.

The Vandenberg interception was lol bad after that (again on another called completely unsurprising short pass), but they lost the game on the two-play sequence to end thier next-to-last drive of the game.

Did either side complete a pass thrown more than ten yards downfield at any point in the game? I'm having trouble remembering one. Martinez hit the one over the middle to Cotton, I guess, and Vandenberg might have completed one in the first quarter. The success rate was low, though.

A gusting and swirling 30 mph wind isn't conducive to a downfield passing game whether you're going with the wind or against it.

Trust me he did not take a dive, this team has look like this all year. That QB is terrible and should have been benched a long time ago. I’m not sure what Iowa has on their bench but it has to better than this.

Yea, it's all Vandenberg. What's on their bench is a true freshman who nobody knows anything about; probably not better. This offensive scheme is the culprit this season, not James Vandenberg. He went from being a pretty decent QB the past few years under KOK to what we just witnessed. Some blame belongs to him, sure, as he does make mistakes. Much of what has occured this year, though, is a product of a terrible offensive sheme that didn't click what-so-ever amonst the whole offense, the whole season.

I think it's both. The OC is spectacularly incompetent, but Vandenberg looks like he's getting ready for a nap on each offensive series. No spark, no leadership. You can see why the team identity became Weisman as soon as he did anything remotely positive.

Was he hurt? If his arm is jelly it may explain some of the conservatism earlier in the year. But not today.

It was a pretty shi**y performance. The real problem may be the OC Greg Davis. WTF kind of offense is he trying to run? He may be the one taking a dive and corrupting the Iowa program. That offense is/was straight sh*t I live in Iowa near Iowa City, I saw it every week. James vandenberg went from a decent to good QB the past few years, under Ken O'Keefe for Christ sakes, and was turned into what we all just watched. That was actually a better game he's played this year.

It is beyond me how anyone can call Ferentz a good coach. That was one of the worst coached game I have seen.

Punting at the Neb 31

Getting an illegal substitution penalty out of a timeout

Not loading the box when you know Nebraska is running the ball.

Showing zero sense of urgency down by 6 with 3 minutes left. Routinely letting the play clock run down with the clock running. Calling the same play over and over agin when everyone knows its coming. A senior QB having zero idea how to run a 2 minute offense...

I know he has an obscenely overpriced contract (how he got that is beyond me) and a huge buyout but how is this man still not fired? And the fact that this team has four wins and is playing at home, and he's playing the game like he's up 14 and trying to run the clock out.... unreal

I know the whole "they're professional coaches and I'm not" thing matters, but seriously. I can't call that a conservative gameplan, because that would imply someone on the coaching staff had a plan at all. Maybe Ferentz and co. are good at developing talent behind the scenes, but when it comes to game time they don't just look bad, they look inept. You didn't outline anything rare, or difficult that they can't do, you outlined basic fundamental things just about every high school coach in America can do in their sleep, yet this B1G coach gets paid millions of dollars to continuously struggle with. Iowa should not only clean house and bring one of the Stoops brothers back home, they should ask Ferentz for their money back.

for the players after the incredibly incompetent play calling and slow offense at the end of the game. His huge contract buyout notwithstanding, it's time for Ferentz to go. Iowa football has become embarassing.

Freshman LB getting lost in coverage for the first drive, terrible roughing the passer penalty, then the 4th quater happened with us up 32 points with back-ups starting to sub in. The bigger question was how did Neb only manage 13 points on that defense?

a freshman qb who wasn't ready to play yet is the QB for much of the game. I have no doubt that Michigan would of have won with either Denard or Devin at QB. Basically Nebraska lucked their way into the Big Ten title game, with the help of key injuries, the officials, and an incompetent Iowa coaching staff along the way.

The fact that Nebraska survived MSU, Wiscy, NW, PSU, and UM by the collective skin of their teeth is what drives me crazy - a crappy Iowa team shouldn't have decided the Legends division anyway. The fact the refs blew at least 2 games with calls that benefitted Nebraska (MSU and PSU), that's what helped them win the division. Oh yeah, and Denard going down.

I agree, it's much in the vein of ND's undefeated season. While I do curse fortune and those two awful calls against MSU and PSU that saved Nebraska's bacon, I first have to look at our own program for not being in the B1G championship. M's utter lack of prepardness for Denard going down is IMO the reason Nebraska wins the division.

was inside the 15 yard line, driving to take the lead when he went down. I am 100% sure that UM is the better team with either Devin or Denard, but unfortunately at the end of the day being the better team does not matter in this case.

Whether or not they win next week, they will get exposed in their bowl game, whether its the Rose Bowl or the Capital One Bowl. They have a shitty defense and an offense that can be good but consistently shoots itself in the foot. Oregon/Stanford or Florida/Georgia/Texas A&M would annihilate Nebraska.

I know it doesn't mean much, but I can go to bed at night knowing that overall, Michigan has a better team.

I will never credit Ferentz for having the mediocre year that he did. For the kind of money he's getting paid, he's putting out garbage teams. He also hired a shitty OC that allowed his, IMO, severely underrated QB to plummet to a 7 TD season. If I were an Iowa fan, I'd be furious.

I will grant him, though, that he has had more bad luck with injuries at RB than most teams get in years. And that position happens to be their bread and butter. But still, this was a pathetic year for him. I wouldn't fire him, as I know he's capable of fielding a great team, but something there has to change.

My word. Good thing I stopped watching at the half when there was still a spark of hope in the game for Michigan's title hopes. Nebraska is fortunate indeed this year, and the B10 will get torched in the Rose Bowl, again.